LEDGER AND CATALOG CARD SAY SENT TO GEORGE HEYE, NEW YORK, 1908.

Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition. This object has been attributed as possibly Haida, based on its being made of argillite.

Catalog card says that this was sent as an exchange to F.W. Galpin in 1902, but this is apparently incorrect, since the whistle remains in the NMNH collection.

From card: "Bear, man, and raven motifs."

This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on artfact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=625 , retrieved 6-24-2012: Mask The exact meaning of this mask - depicting a man's face with painted facial designs - has not been determined. Some Haida masks represent supernatural beings that were believed to possess chiefs and noble dancers during winter secret society performances. One of these was Walala, the Cannibal Spirit. Walala dancers bit onlookers and pretended to eat human flesh; those possessed by Bear, Wild Man, Beggar, and other spirits enacted the behaviors of those beings.

Swan's list in the accession record indicates that this object, number 45 1/2 on the list, was collected at Masset, B.C. in July 1883 but he identifies this as "made at Chilkat Alaska."

Original label attached to artifact says "Agnes Dan [presumably the maker or original owner?], Jackson, Alaska." Jackson is an alternate name for Howkan, Alaska, which is a Haida town.